You never know what to expect on most trips. You plan & plan, thinking you have every part of the trip locked in. Over the years you get accustomed to things not sticking as planned. The first few trips, it’s annoying… after a while you get used to it… then at a certain point, you kinda look forward to things falling apart.
For someone with OCD like mine… that's a pretty big statement. Over the years I've dragged my friends through the mental turmoil of my mind when plans go off course. Especially because I'm the one who takes it upon myself to plan each minute of every trip. My amazing friends would humor my mental derangement & allow me to go through the same cycle on every trip. But because of their patience it allowed me to come to my own realizations that no matter how much you plan… how perfect the schedule is… shits gonna fall apart no matter what, so just go with it… That's what makes it an adventure.
This Owens River trip was the idea of my best friend whom I consider my brother, David. He wanted to celebrate his birthday driving his dream truck up to a part of the world we have yet to adventure… it was his birthright.
A Man & His Machine:
ATC team member DeWoe aka. David Wong, took his 1991 Toyota Land Cruiser w/211k miles, on a 600-mile round trip from Los Angeles to Owens Valley for a 3-day fishing & camping expedition.
I was honored to ride shotgun for this vintage beast's first trip. DeWoe purchased this rig last year with dreams of building it into an overlanding/do-it-all rig. This time capsule tells a story.
As we make our way up from LA... through the 5 to the 395... every creak & rattle catches our attention. This old truck has us in a hyper-aware state... but this is not fear. We are confident in our choice to take this relic on a 600mi journey... it is, of course, a Toyota. I myself grew up driving 'beaters' so I was used to the overdramatic cabin noises & ignoring them by simply cranking up the radio (as one should).
DeWoe spent a lot of time & money on this rig well before the trip. Addressing the problems that caused stalling & rough idles... as well as partnering with a few experts to give the truck a good once-over. He was confident in her ability to get us there & back in one go.
Our gear fully loaded, we clenched our anuses before every steep highway hill... & laughed it off after we cleared said hills, chasing it with a "didn't think she was gonna make that one"... for this truck is a 4-speed automatic full-time AWD tank hauling an overpacked cabin, with a skinny Asian man as the pilot & a borderline obese Mexican co-pilot. This perfect duo pushed this truck to its limits... & she held up very well.
We hurled that beautiful scrap metal through the 395, directly to the Owens River. We set up shop for the day somewhere off the north side of the river. As mentioned, I completely gave up on planning some trips. This was Woe's idea so I just sat back & enjoyed the ride. A lot of the Owens River is considered “Los Angeles County Property,” so we were not allowed to camp in those areas… those greedy bastards. DeWoe found a small patch of BLM land right off the river that he was confident we were able to set up camp for a few nights. Unfortunately when we arrived the soil was dried & severely cracked… impossible to stake a tent. Also the field was covered in dried cow shit & what we assumed was a somewhat fresh turd left behind by a Homo sapien… We contemplated our options but decided to do some fishing & figure it out later… like any self-respecting fisherman would.
Winds blowing strong from the north, we did our best tying flies to our leaders in hopes to catch a trout before sundown… before we had to deal with the reality of figuring out where we were going to lay our heads that night. After a quick lunch provided by a local “Looney Bean” in Bishop, we made our way to the river… I wish this part of the story was a little more eventful, but I’ll just cut to the chase & say we did not catch a single fish… A couple solid bites but nothing landed. We held off as long as we could but eventually had to wrap it up for the day & find a place to set up camp.
We were unlucky enough to have service out there… so we were able to research the available places to set up. No definitive answers through a standard Google search… but we found some concrete information through a subreddit. We made our way up Owens River Rd., gravel terrain for roughly fourteen miles. The forum information stated that we can essentially camp anywhere off ORR. Most of the area is flat & barren… not ideal for what we had in mind. About ten miles in we started to see a tree line in the distance. Lush tall green pine trees after miles of the desert scenery felt like a mirage… but this was far from it. We decided to keep trucking to that tree line… We found home.
This area turned out to be less than a few miles from Mammoth… I’d consider Crestview from what I can see on the map. Just a bunch of fire roads open to the public for camping. We found a perfect flat spot for the truck & my tent to set up camp for the night. Best part… not a single other soul in sight. For that brief moment we felt alone in the world. We set up camp… DeWoe set up his two-person platform bed in his Toyota… This trip I opted for a Featherstone one-person tent. My bed for the night was the Near Zero Insulated Inflatable Sleeping Pad (that you can purchase on the site). Quick review: the pad did excellent in keeping me warm… however the inflating sack that comes with it was a challenge to use in my opinion. I opted for DeWoe's hand pump that came with his pad.
We made dinner as temps began to drop. 8pm temps dropped to roughly 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It was so cold that the cast-iron skillet we were using to make our carne asada would not stay hot… but we made it work. Cold tacos in our systems… cigar fumes & good conversations out in the air… we wrapped up for the night. The night grew colder but I was well prepared. According to my Garmin watch, temps reached as low as 40 degrees that night.
The night was cold but I was warm enough. The only thing I could say about that night is that it was exactly at 3:00am I was awoken by the sound of what I can only explain as a distant thumping sound that followed a consistent cadence. At first I thought it was my head messing with me… it was witching hour… but the noise was consistent. I could almost feel it through the ground. I'm also not naive enough to go investigate. Call me a coward if you want but folks go missing in the woods all the time. To add to the eeriness… during our cold dinner a few hours before, we had a conversation about UFOs & alien abductions… I shared my experience… Yes, I have a story that I’ll most definitely share on another blog. So with that in mind… I was most certainly staying securely in my tent with my 9mm close by. I eventually dozed back off & woke up roughly at 6am still on Earth with my rectum unviolated.
Caffeine in my system & breakfast in our bellies, we hit the road for another round of Owens River skunk fishing. Overcast rolling in & a snowstorm in the forecast. We decided to hit the south side of the river to try our luck… this time the trail we took was a little more rugged… but the Toyota beast made that steep muddy trail look like a puddle in summer. Solid wind, cold temps & a heavy drizzle… we were in our element. As I write this blog I'm realizing this trip might be less eventful for the reader… but for us we were having the time of our lives not catching any fish. To paraphrase Rick Rubin: The Creative Act… it doesn't matter if the work is good or bad… or if the reader loves or hates it… the act of putting out art helps manage the flow of creativity… So as I contemplated posting this blog I reminded myself that just putting this out there makes room for creativity to flow… to make room for our next project.
So I’ll end with this… we caught no fish… the second night it snowed… we loved every moment of it. Me & my brother spent his birthday weekend fly fishing… having deep conversations… eating food that got cold the second it came off the stove… we tested our gear… our minds… our souls. We saw a different part of the world… & WE FUCKEN THRIVED…
-DJB
0 comments